Leveraging Central & Eastern European networks to scale up your business

Transcription

1 Leveraging Central & Eastern European networks to scale up your business Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED) will bring together growth-oriented entrepreneurs from throughout the CEE Region to meet in Poland to share ideas and partner for mutually beneficial growth.

2 Each year CEED brings together over 150 fast growth entrepreneurs from Central and Eastern Europe to inspire, give a fresh view, and offer regional business networking opportunities. This year entrepreneurs will meet in Poland, the sixth largest economy in the EU and one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, with a yearly growth rate of over 3%. CEE is a diverse region with each country having comparative advantages and providing unique opportunities. Market contraction in the region requires we all do more with less. Finding unique business synergies in the region and beyond is the challenge entrepreneurs face. At the conference, regional and international entrepreneurs and investors will share their views and experience on building teams, growing companies and going beyond borders. Jerry Colonna Our keynote speakers will include Jerry Colonna, an early investor in Twitter, Lycos, Gamesville, Geocities. He has been named as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the New Economy by Upside Magazine and was named as one of the best VCs in the U.S. by Forbes ASAP list. Jerry is also a coach to over 40 entrepreneurs in the U.S. and CEE region. Johan Gorecki The moderator for the event will be Johan Gorecki. An entrepreneur himself, he worked with the founding team of Skype, which ebay acquired for $4.1 billion in He also worked with the international entertainment broadcasting company Modern Times Group (MTG). Most recently, Johan is known for founding and being CEO of Globe Forum, an internationally recognized marketplace for sustainable innovation.

3 Hubertus van der Vaart Hubertus van der Vaart is co-founder of Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF). SEAF invests in small and medium enterprises in emerging and transition markets in the form of equity, mezzanine, and term credit. Bert ran the first SEAF fund in Poland, today he is the executive chairman of SEAF, which has made 352 investments across 22 emerging markets totaling $429 million in invested capital. He was a partner and associate with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C, Frankfurt, and Brussels where he specialized in corporate and financial transactions and a management consultant with Bain & Company in London and Munich. Jacek Błoński is CEO of Lewiatan Business Angels, the largest network of Business Angels in Poland Lewiatan Business Angels and in 2009, as the first representative of the Central and Eastern European region, he was appointed Vice-President of the Board at The European Business Angels Network (EBAN). His business experience includes working for the BMW Group, Enterprise Investors Corpora tion, Simon Kucher & Partners. Jacek Błoński Ignacy Miedziński is co-founder and president of Biuro Projektowania Systemów Cyfrowych (BPSC SA). BPSC is today among the top five providers of Enterprise Resource Planning solutions in Poland. BPSC is a five time winner of the Puls Businesu (Business Pulse) Business Gazelle title, the Forbes Diamond award (2009) and the Chorzow's Leader of Economic Development award (2010). Ignacy has served as a board member of the Polish Software Market Association. Ignacy Miedziński Ela Madej is a young polish web and mobile entrepreneur who co-founded a few start-ups such as Applicake, Future Simple, European Rails Conference Railsberry and Credictive. She recently received U.S. VC funding in Chicago and was featured in Wprost magazine s 2011 list of Poland s 100 Future Richest. Ela is active in building the Polish startup community with Hive53 meetups and running Mobile Mobile Conferences. Ela Madej Robert Kwiatkowski is the Deputy Director, Market Development Department, at the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). He is responsible for the acquisition of companies to the WSE through cooperation with potential issuers and market participants, domestic and international. Robert is active on the Polish capital market since 1994 and has also worked in the Polish National Depositary for Securities. Robert Kwiatkowski Beata Kacprzyk is chief specialist at the Warsaw Stock Exchange s Market Development Department, responsible for attracting Polish and foreign companies and investment firms to the WSE. During her multi-year carrier at the WSE, was involved in a number of business projects related to development of the WSE. As a public speaker, Beata popularizes the ways of raising capital via the stock market, along with stock and bond issues. Beata Kacprzyk Bogusława Cimoszko Skowrońska is the founder of CMS Corporate Management Services with offices in Zurich, Warsaw and Prague. CMS assists management and company owners with capital raisings from the public and private markets, strategy execution, and mergers & acquisitions. CMS introduced first two foreign companies to the NewConnect segment of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. As an experienced financial services executive, Boguslawa has for EBRD in London, UBS AG and Fincoord in Zurich. Bogusława Cimoszko Skowrońska

4 Regional CEED Conference 24 th - 25 th May, 2012 Warsaw, Poland Thursday, May 24 th, 2012 Pre-conference*: Doing Business in Poland 14:00 16:00 Visit to Warsaw Stock Exchange Presentation of New Connect Market for SMEs - an opportunity for attracting investments 16:00-17:00 Pre-conference registration 17:00-19:30 What does it take to make it in Poland? Leveraging Polish economic growth to expand your business 19:30-22:30 Dinner & cocktails *for international entrepreneurs Friday, May 25 th, 2012 CEED Regional Conference: Up & Out 8:30-9:30 Conference registration 9:30-9:45 Opening & Getting to know each other 9:45-11:00 Becoming the entrepreneur & CEO that can manage and induce change: Keynote by Jerry Colonna 11:00-11:25 Break 11:25-12:20 Sharing the Entrepreneurial Journey: A conversation with mentors and entrepreneurs 12:20-13:15 Finding the Funding: Panel with investors about investment opportunities in the region 13:15-14:15 Networking Lunch 14:15-15:30 Pre-arranged B2B meeting & Networking Lounge 15:30-16:30 Grow up & Out: Entrepreneur Hot Spot 16:30 Closing 17:30-19:00 Cocktail hour

5 Venue The CEED regional conference 2012 will take place at the Novotel Warszawa Centrum Hotel, which is perfectly situated between Warsaw s historic Old Town and today s thriving business district. Novotel Warszawa Centrum Hotel Ul Marszalkowska Warsaw Hotel arrangements All international attendees are responsible for making for their own hotel reservations. Due to the high conference season and the UEFA EURO 2012 in Warsaw, it is highly recommended that attendees make reservations as soon as possible. We have reserved blocks of rooms at the venue and other hotels. For more information visit Conference fee Members of CEED network: no fee for participation. Non-members of CEED network: please contact us at: entrepreneur@ceed-global.org Registration The registration form is available at or write to entrepreneur@ceed-global.org About CEED CEED is a membership organization serving a new generation of internationally oriented entrepreneurs in Central & Eastern Europe. Entrepreneurs join CEED to gain access to the mentors, networks, knowledge and capital they need to grow their businesses. CEED is building a trusted community of growth oriented and like minded entrepreneurs, gathering today more than 1000 active members and having helped over entrepreneurs in Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.